ROC-NY does more than just fight the restaurants that take the ‘low-road.' In 2005, ROC-NY organized the Restaurant Industry Roundtable, a regular convening of restaurant owners who take the ‘high-road' to profitability. Through the Roundtable, workers, owners, and city agencies came together to produce the New York City Restaurant Owner Manual, a 60-page manual on restaurant owners' legal obligations to their workers. Because of this Roundtable, the City agreed to publish and distribute the Manual to restaurant owners every time they seek to obtain a license from the City. ROC-NY was also able to work with the City Department of Small Business Services to offer free monthly training to restaurant owners on the Manual. Currently, members of the Roundtable are signing on to a ‘Code of Conduct' that will allow ROC-NY to promote them to conscientious consumers.
Interested in Joining the Roundtable?
COLORS Restaurant
In 2006, ROC-NY organized a group of 40 workers to help them open their own cooperative restaurant, COLORS. A fine-dining restaurant that serves global cuisine to reflect the diversity of its worker-owners, COLORS serves as a living model of good wages and working conditions.